SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEiRN UNITED STATES 73 



is now Jones' Bluff. The Chitimacha war, resulting from the mur- 

 der of St. Cosme, was brought to an end in 1718 at the time when 

 New Orleans was founded, and not long after that event a part of 

 the Chitimacha and a number of small tribes gathered around the 

 capital for trade and protection. Among these were the Washa, 

 Chawasha, Bayogoula, Houma, Acolapissa, and for a time the Taensa 

 and Biloxi. The same thing happened in connection with the Mobile 

 post, where we find assembled the Taensa from the Mississippi, some 

 Choctaw from the neighborhood of Tombigbee River, and Apa- 

 lachee, Chatot, Tawasa, and Yamasee from Florida, to say nothing 

 of the Mobile, Tohome, Biloxi, Pascagoula, and Pensacola, who had 

 been found in the neighboring country when the settlement was made. 



French colonization continued steadily, if somewhat slowly, until 

 interrupted by the great Natchez rebellion of November 28, 1729. 

 The leaders of this movement had planned to enlist all the surround- 

 ing Indians, but only the small Yazoo and Koroa of Yazoo River 

 joined them. The Ofagoula, or Ofo, left then and settled near the 

 Tunica, who also remained firm in their allegiance to the whites. 

 Yet while there were few actual defections among the tribes, the 

 war proved difficult and disastrous, and, although the Natchez were 

 driven from the colony, they long terrorized the settlements and in- 

 terrupted communications between Louisiana and Canada. From 

 this time on the smaller tribes dropped off rapidly in numbers and 

 could furnish little support to the colony, although during the con- 

 tinuance of the Natchez struggle the Tunica and Natchitoches did 

 yeoman service. 



Unhappily for the French, too, the Natchez war was succeeded 

 in 1736 by one with a much more powerful people, the Chickasaw, 

 who were supplied with ammunition and otherwise actively aided 

 by the English of Carolina. An attempt by the French officers 

 d'Artaguette and Bienville to crush them by simultaneous move- 

 ments from the Illinois country and Mobile ended in the disastrous 

 rout of both parties, and a more impressive attempt in 1739-40 dis- 

 solved without permanent accomplishment. The Choctaw remained 

 as the one important stay of the French colony, and even of them a 

 part was enlisted in the interest of the English and Chickasaw, so 

 that a bitter civil war distracted the tribe and the colony for several 

 years. At a later period the French and Choctaw together were 

 more successful, the Chickasaw being vastly outnumbered by their 

 congeners to the south. In fact, plans were formulated for remov- 

 ing the Chickasaw to the Creek country or the immediate frontiers 

 of Carolina and Georgia, and there was a Chickasaw town among 

 the Upper Creeks for many years, while another body settled close to 

 Augusta under the Squirrel King. But the tide of war seems to have 



